For a razor clamming how-to guide and a recipe for Langdon Cook's clam ceviche, head over to the Trails & Tides blog.

Razor Clamming Dates

The next set of razor clamming digs are tentatively set to begin April 14 on the Washington coast. The following dig dates, starting times and locations are subject to marine toxin testing, which should be completed by Wednesday. Check the state Dept. of Fish and Wildlife's razor clam webpage for updates, wdfw.wa.gov/fishing/shellfish/razorclams/

April 14, 6:46 a.m. at Twin Harbors

April 15, 7:24 a.m. at Twin Harbors and Long Beach

April 16, 8:03 a.m. at Twin Harbors and Long Beach

April 17, 8:43 a.m. at Twin Harbors and Long Beach

April 18, 9:26 a.m. at Twin Harbors, Long Beach and Mocrocks

April 19, 10:14 a.m. at Twin Harbors, Long Beach, Mocrocks and Copalis

April 20, 11:06 a.m. at Twin Harbors, Long Beach, Mocrocks and Copalis

Hundreds of clam hunters shuffled along the ocean's edge with their backs hunched and eyes scanning the briny sand.

Making their way through the crowd was foraging expert Langdon Cook and his pack of first-time razor clammers. He coached them to stay alert despite the wind whipping rain into their faces and the waves flooding their rubber boots, and he lifted their spirits with promises of hot clam chowder for dinner.

"There!" he said, pointing to a dimple in the sand.

Jen Chiu struck first, sinking the plastic tube of her clam gun into the sand. She pushed hard and then pulled fast, extracting a 4-inch clam before it made its escape into deeper sand.

That was all it took. Chiu was hooked.

"I got almost greedy about it after that," she said later as Cook led the students through a pre-dinner clam-cleaning spree. "It's like people back in the day who were obsessed with gold. Once you discover it, you want more. You get obsessed."

Chiu was one of 20 people who signed up for a three-day razor clamming class offered by the Bainbridge park district and led by Cook, a forager and writer best known for "Fat of the Land," a 2009 book recounting his adventures as a wild food-gatherer in the Pacific Northwest. The annual class filled quickly, drawing many students from the Seattle area.

"Razor clamming helps you tap into the hunter-gatherer we all have inside us," Cook said. "People don't realize we have it, but then we go out and dig some clams and they just get so excited."

The class featured three low-tide digs and instruction on how to clean and then cook the clams into fritters, two kinds of chowder, linguine and ceviche.

The students stayed two nights in a large waterfront house that, by the second day, had the appearance of a frat house full of gourmands. There were platters of picked-over French cheeses and cured meats, half-empty bottles of homemade liqueur and empty wineglasses parked all over the living room and kitchen. Cook had to rally a few couch-dozing clammers before the afternoon dig.

The unusually large crowds of clammers also added a touch of competition to the outing.

Most of Cook's pupils captured their daily limit of 15 clams.

State shellfish managers say this spring's digs will be exceptionally plentiful.

"We've got a really strong population right now, said Dan Ayres, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife's coastal shellfish manager. "In the Seabrook area, we're measuring some of the densest populations we've seen in more than 40 years."

Cook credits the state's strong — and apparently growing — razor clam population to careful management. The state regularly stops and starts the clamming season to check in with the health of the population, and it strictly limits the hours and locations where clamming is permitted. Contrast that with Oregon, which allows clamming just about anywhere nine months out of the year.

"They've had a population drop in Oregon, and not much digging is going on," Ayres said. "That's why they're coming to Washington."

Each year, about 250,000 digging trips are made to the Washington coast, producing nearly 3 million pounds of harvested clams. Those numbers are down substantially from the 1980s, when looser regulations allowed the annual harvest of up to 13 million pounds.

Compared with the more common clams of Puget Sound — which sit still near the surface — razor clams put up a fight, digging up to an inch per second when spooked.

"You really feel like you're catching something," Cook said.

Chiu said razor clamming took more work than she expected.

"I thought it'd be a walk in the park, but you really had to use your muscles, doing almost like a squat or a deadlift to pull (the clam gun) out," she said.

Getting cold, wet and filthy while in the pursuit of razor clams is worth the trouble, Cook said. A single limit of 15 clams is usually enough for a big pot of chowder, a family-size fried clam dinner and portion of leftovers for the freezer.

Class member Larry Ota likes that the clams didn't come wrapped in plastic.

"Not going to the supermarket to make my dinner is pretty cool," he said.

By the third day, most of the clammers had coolers full of clams to take home.

That's well and good, Chiu said, but the biggest reward was getting immersed in a quintessentially Northwest experience.

"Even if I got zero clams, it was gorgeous out there," she said. "It rained hard. It stung my face. I love that!"